Easy Sweet Potato Recipes & Ideas

Sweet potatoes are one of the most delicious, comforting, and easy-to-use fall and winter ingredients—sweet and savory, they're versatile, to boot. Sometimes, there's nothing cozier than a simple baked sweet potato, piping hot out of the oven. For an easy, healthy, nutrition-packed weeknight dinner side dish, it's hard to beat the savory-sweet creaminess of mashed sweet potatoes. Looking to include more sweet potatoes in your cooking repertoire this year? Here are 20 of our favorite simple and healthy sweet potato recipes for inspiration—try a sweet potato casserole, sweet potatoes with cider and brown sugar, and our best sweet potato pies to start.

Charred Sweet Potatoes with Elecampane Cream and Honey Gastrique

The flesh of whole roasted sweet potatoes has a natural caramel-y sweetness that lends itself perfectly to dessert. At Mettā in Brooklyn, chef Norberto Piattoni finishes the spuds over the coals, adding another dimension of flavor. Elecampane, an herb from the sunflower family, adds complexity to the whipped cream dolloped over top. Slideshow: More Sweet Potato Recipes

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Mint–Pine Nut Pesto 

This vegan and gluten-free gnocchi is surprisingly light and pillowy. Parisian chef Angèle Ferreux-Maeght binds the simple sweet potato dough with cornstarch instead of eggs. Slideshow: More Sweet Potato Recipes

Coconut Cream and Sweet Potatoes (Papua New Guinea)

From Vegan: The Cookbook by Jean-Christian Jury, Phaidon 2017. Slideshow: More Sweet Potatoes Recipes

Sweet Potato Tots

These sweet potato tots are unlike anything you can buy at the store. They have a crisp, cornmeal-dusted exterior while the inside tastes like the world’s best barbecue-flavored potato chip. We like our tots dipped in ketchup, but a spicy Sriracha mayo would be delicious, too. Slideshow: More Sweet Potato Recipes

7 Best Sweet Potato Desserts for Fall

Take a break from pumpkin.

Healthy Sweet Potato Recipes

Filled with vitamins and healthy nutrition, sweet potatoes are great to incorporate in any healthy diet. Try these delicious recipes for healthy cooking inspiration, from a quinoa and sweet potato salad to baked sweet potato chips.

Sweet Potato Cakes with Yellow Corn, Basil and Goat Cheese

“A vegetarian dish can’t just be a throwaway or an incomplete thought,” says chef Sarah Rich of Rich Table in San Francisco. “It has to be interesting and satisfying like any other dish.” She and her husband (and Rich Table co-chef), Evan, bring that philosophy home with these crisp-tender sweet potato cakes topped with charred corn and crumbled goat cheese. Recipe from Food & Wine Chefs' Easy Weeknight Dinners.